|
Denise Mina was born in Glasgow in 1966. Because of her father's job as an engineer, the family followed the north sea oil boom of the seventies around Europe, moving twenty one times in eighteen years from Paris to the Hague, London, Scotland and Bergen. She left school at sixteen and did a number of poorly paid jobs: working in a meat factory, bar maid, kitchen porter and cook. Eventually she settled in auxiliary nursing for geriatric and terminal care patients. At twenty one she passed exams, got into study Law at Glasgow University and went on to research a PhD thesis at Strathclyde University on the ascription of mental illness to female offenders, teaching criminology and criminal law in the mean time. Misusing her grant she stayed at home and wrote a novel, 'Garnethill' when she was supposed to be researching and writing her thesis. 'Garnethill' won the Crime Writers' Association John Creasy Dagger for the best first crime novel and was the start of a trilogy completed by 'Exile' and 'Resolution'. A fourth novel followed, a stand alone, named 'Sanctum' in the UK and 'Deception' in the US. In 2005 'The Field of Blood' was published, the first of a series of five books following the career and life of journalist Paddy Meehan from the newsrooms of the early 1980s, through the momentous events of the nineteen nineties. The second in the series was published in 2006, ‘The Dead Hour’ and the third, “The Last Breath” in the UK and “Slip of the Knife’ in the US. “The Field of Blood” was filmed by Slate and BBC Scotland. Here’s an interview between Denise and Jayd Johnston, who played Paddy and won the 2011 BAFTA for Best Actress The second book “The Dead Hour” was filmed in 2012 and the third will follow, hopefully. “Still Midnight”, the first of the Alex
Morrow books was followed by “The End of the Wasp Season”, “Gods
and Beasts” and “The
Red Road” will be out this summer. Comics She also writes comics and wrote ‘Hellblazer’, the John Constantine series for Vertigo, for a year, published soon as graphic novels called ‘Empathy is the Enemy’ and ‘The Red Right Hand’. A one-off graphic novel about spree killing and property prices was published in 2008 called “A Sickness in the Family”. Since 2012 she has been adapting the Steig Larsson Millennium Trilogy as graphic novels. The entire trilogy will be produced as six graphic novels. Part one was published in 2012 and the second is out soon. Plays In 2006 she wrote her first play, “Ida Tamson” an adaptation of a short story which was serialised in the Evening Times over five nights. The play was part of the Oran Mor ‘A Play, a Pie and a Pint’ series, starred Elaine C. Smith and was, frankly, rather super. Following that came “A Drunk Woman Looks at the Thistle”, a performance poem for Karen Dunbar. Produced at Oran Mor again, it went onto a three week run at the Edinburgh International Festival and has been revived several times for one-off productions. It is a re writing of Hugh Macdairmaid’s 1921 poem “A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle” and the transcript is on this site under ‘other writing’. “Driving Manuel” is coming to Oran Mor 18th March- 23rd 2013. The play is based on a true story: the bizarre encounter between the serial killer Peter Manuel and Peter Watt, the man who’s family he murdered. Watt was charged with the murders of his family and met Manuel believing he was going to give him a tip off about the real killer. They spent eleven hours together and got very drunk but neither really talked about that night and no one knows what really happened. Documentary films “ Edgar Allan Poe: Love, Death and Women” for BBC 4 was a two hour exploration of the life of Edgar Allan Poe through his relationship with four of the most important women in his life. Here’s a clip. Forthcoming: “Multum in Parvo” (much in little) is a documentary about my enormous, extended family by my enormous extended family and shown to my enormous extended family. My cousin and I made a film interviewing our elderly relatives about a family of thirteen living in a small three bedroom council house. Then we filmed a screening of the family watching the film and intercut the documentary with their reactions. Another cousin, a professional musician, did the sound and music. As well as all of this she writes short stories published in various collections, stories for BBC Radio 4, and contributes to TV and radio. Prizes Garnethill: Helena and the Babies: The Dead Hour: End of the Wasp Season: Gods and Beasts:
|
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |